Tell Me Your Secrets

I need to know your secrets – you parents who always have beautiful pictures of your children on your blogs. So many of you have cute pictures of your children looking into the camera, smiling, their hair just so, their clothes clean. How do you do it??

I must have thousands of pictures of Ashley taken over the last 12 years. The only really, really good ones are the ones taken by professionals. But you all post so many candid shots, shots which it appears you have taken in your home, in your yard, on vacation, etc.

And don’t even get me started on school pictures. I buy them every year because I would feel like a bad mother if I didn’t. But almost all of those pictures are ugly – really ugly. Now, Ashley is beautiful but somehow the school photographers turn her image into something not so beautiful.

I’m very grateful for the pictures my brother (a professional photographer) has taken over the years. I’m very grateful for the pictures taken by a friend of Amy’s (also a professional photographer). Two examples are shown below. And I’m very grateful for the pictures that Amy and my son, Chip, take of Ashley. Many of them have turned out well.



But then there are the ones I take, like this one....



Ashley is strangling the cat - the picture is blurry - and a random foot is at the top of the picture.

I really want to be able to create a lovely image of my lovely daughter. So tell me your secrets, please…

Today I am thankful for digital cameras. I can’t even imagine what it would cost to develop the hundreds of pictures I take just to get one or two passable ones.